Oscar Nominations Released

KATIE PICKRELL

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made its nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards that are set to take place on February 28.

Leonardo DiCaprio, famous for his lack of success in winning an Oscar, is up again for best actor in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “The Revenant.” The film is up for twelve different categories, including best picture, best director and best cinematography.

“The Titanic,” which featured Leo as a young star, received 11 awards, none of which went to the man himself.

Some that didn’t make the cut include Will Smith (“Concussion”), Samuel L. Jackson (“The Hateful Eight”), Michael B. Jordan (“Creed”) – or any other actor of color.

On the other side of the coin, Jennifer Lawrence is back at it for best actress in “Joy” while Cate Blanchett (“Carol”), Brie Larson (“Room”), Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”) are up for the same award.

Much like the male counterpart, only white individuals were nominated for best actress. The same goes for best supporting actor and best supporting actress.

It’s also notable that no women were put up for best director, but that’s somewhat, and unfortunately, expected as women only hold seven percent of directing jobs in Hollywood, a number similar to that which we observed in the 90s.

Movies such as “The Revenant” and “Mad Max” dominate the field with twelve and ten nominations while movies like the racially diverse “Creed” or “Straight Outta Compton” were all but shutout excluding the nomination of (white) supporting actor Sylvester Stallone and best original screenplay by the self-described “white Jewish gay guy from Connecticut,” Jonathan Herman, and also Andrea Berloff. Put differently: the only appreciation for two of the year’s biggest films featuring black actors went directly to white people.

This isn’t to say that the Academy is necessarily voting along racial lines, as there’s usually little diversity to work off of in Hollywood, but the question does come about.

It should also be appreciated that the pool for selecting black actors, actresses, directors and writers was not non-existent, especially in a year where films like “Creed,” “Concussion,” “Beasts of No Nation” and “Compton” dominated theaters.

All of the priorly mentioned films sported plenty of talent with actors like Smith, Jackson, Jordan and Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation”), all of whom were likely contenders for best actor. The directors and writers of “Creed” and “Compton” were ethnically diverse and suited for the nominations as well.

Still, nothing – and the infamous “#OscarsSoWhite” is set to remain for another year.